


We Hold On And Let Go

by whatdidyouexpect (youdbetterbeready)



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Coordinate search and rescue, M/M, The Triskelion, soundgarden - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-19
Updated: 2020-05-19
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:41:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 770
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24272254
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/youdbetterbeready/pseuds/whatdidyouexpect
Summary: "I'm going to have to ask you to turn that prisoner over to me." Loki and the Tesseract are taken into SHIELD custody after the attack on New York. Avengers Assemble!
Relationships: Loki/Thor (Marvel)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 28





	We Hold On And Let Go

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Commission: Thor rescues Loki from SHIELD custody](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/622471) by hardwareupgrade. 



> I was intrigued by the brief exchange between Alexander Pierce and Tony/Thor in the flashback we were treated to in Endgame, not least of all because of the scared, trapped horse look on Loki's face when he starts playing hardball. I commissioned an amazing piece of art by hardwareupgrade via Twitter, and it finally propelled me into writing something to go along with it. It is but a humble offering, but I am pleased enough with it. Title comes from "Live to Rise" by Soundgarden, from the first Avengers movie soundtrack, and the sentence prompts are from EmalieJacobs.com.

1\. Hope: It isn't hope that he feels, per se, as the Triskelion building comes into view, jutting towards the sky as if reaching for him, though visual confirmation of its existence nonetheless brings him that much closer to what he has come here to do.

2\. Gratitude: It is with begrudging gratitude that Thor accepts help from the other Avengers, though he makes it clear that the repossession of the Tesseract is not his main goal this day.

3\. Determination: Even though Thor is perfectly capable of and willing to scorch the Earth with brutal determination in order to reclaim what belongs to him, garnering the secret location of SHIELD's headquarters from Black Widow is an admittedly faster and less violent means to the same end.

4\. Rain: Furious rain pours from the sky as its maker likewise descends, eventually landing atop the Triskelion's rounded roof.

5\. Coffee: Even without the benefit of the seeming gallons of coffee that the other Avengers consumed before boarding the Quinjet for this particular mission, Thor is painfully awake, his focus both figuratively and literally lightning.

6\. Beginning: This particular pair of missions is an inauspicious beginning for this team of super-powered misfits, and Thor wonders briefly whether he will ever see the lot of them again when this is finally over.

7\. Light Bulb: The only light in Loki's cell, aside from that filtering in from sparse slivers of window, is a single, bare bulb on the ceiling whose 'off' switch is located on the other side of the cell's sole door and stays on.

8\. Stand: Loki does not stand when Thor crashes through the roof, nor does he cower at the truly impressive mountain of rubble that this creates.

9\. Dreamscape: Loki had dreams like this once, between all of the attempts to break his body and mind, before he learned that it was slightly less painful not to hope for rescue.

10\. Nightmares: Thor's nightmares, once 'merely' fraught with endless recurring memories of Loki falling away from him, are now intermixed with snapshots of his brother being ripped from him anew on Midgard and brought here.

11\. Pain: Pain blossoms across his brother's pale features as Thor gingerly assesses the chains and ties that bind him, and Thor vows silently through furious, barely unshed tears that none shall harm Loki ever again. 

12\. Bliss: In the immediate wake of Loki being freed, a moment of unfettered bliss passes between them, one which Thor has waited seemingly in vain to experience.

13\. Prepare: Loki's arms are weakened from their recent bondage, but though they shake as they loop around Thor's neck as Thor prepares to spirit them away via the same hole in the ceiling from which he entered, they remain steadfastly in place during the brothers' Mjolnir-assisted ascent.

14\. Wander: Having the freedom to let his mind wander is a novelty to Loki these days, though he tries not to think about it too much as Thor carries him away from this latest imprisonment.

15\. Adventure: In their shared boyhood, soaring through the air, buoyed by the wind was the stuff of a typical day's adventure, an activity that seems almost ludicrous now.

16\. Escape: There is so much and yet so little to be shared between them, but focusing on their escape gives them an excuse to marinate in the pregnant silence of the moment.

17\. Outbreak: An outbreak of agents upon the outdoor expanse of the rotund building, followed by the hasty propulsion of the Quinjet into the air anew implies that the rest of the team's mission to reappropriate control of the Tesseract has also been successful.

18\. Calendar: The small wall calendar that catches Loki's eye early on upon his reluctant admittance into Avengers Tower estimates his absence as perhaps a year in length, though it feels as if he has recently survived several lifetimes.

19\. Ending: Loki's newfound habitation of Midgard is as much the beginning of one era as it is the ending of another, and only the future will tell whether existing under the same roof as Tony Stark is preferable to rotting in an underground cell on Asgard.

20\. Backwards: Frigga's face is more worn than Loki remembers, and he aches to see her go back to Asgard, the Tesseract in tow, abruptly enough to have barely been there at all; and yet, there are nights when, perched on his and Thor's shared private balcony and gazing upwards at the sky, he swears he can feel her compassionate gaze upon him in kind, the least painful reminder he has of home.


End file.
